Monday, May 5, 2014

Short drive today to Las Vegas, NV

We were watching the weather forecast between Buckskin Mtn SP & Las Vegas and we had a small window to travel and miss high winds. For a change we decided to get up early to try and get on the road in time to miss the wind near Las Vegas. Early for us wound up being 6:00AM and getting on the road a few minutes after 8:00AM. Oh, the pain of moving around that early. Even getting on the road so early, we were one of the last to leave. I guess everyone wanted to avoid the heat and wind.

We passed the Old Trails Arch Bridge over the Colorado River in Topock, California which formerly carried US 66. It was converted to carry a natural gas pipeline circa 1947.

Once we got on the road it was non-stop to Las Vegas except for a few stop lights. The Sonoran Desert has a certain beauty about it, however the Mojave Desert along I-40 in CA and RT 95 in Nevada doesn't have much going for it. The GPS showed streets in the desert but they weren't there and all we saw was scrub brush and a few cacti.

Sandie, we kept the Cal-Nev-Ari campground in mind in case we had to pull over early. It looked like it would be a nice stopover campground.

RT 95 in Nevada is mostly a 4 lane divided highway except when it goes through the small town of Searchlight. The speed drops down to 25mph (speed trap?) through town and they seem to enforce it vigorously. I wonder why they just didn't bypass the town and not have such a low speed out in the middle of nowhere. Oh, wait, who lives in Searchlight? Somebody by the last name of Reid who is an elected official.

We almost made it to Las Vegas before the winds picked up, but the last 20-30 miles were a little rough. I saw on the news tonight that the winds were in the 25-35mph range. The only good thing about it was that it was wind at the rear of the motorhome for the most part.

We are settled in at a Passport America RV park on the Boulder Highway called Duck Creek RV Resort. The sites are very close together and in order to handle a rig our size we take up two campsites. We only pay for one site, so that is fine with us.

3 comments:

So glad to hear you got there safely. I think we're going to stay at the Road Runner when we get to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. The only problem is they don't take reservations so we just have to keep our fingers crossed. Supposed to be windy here again tomorrow as the cold front comes through. At least we'll have a couple of days break from the heat. Not sure what you have planned to see while in Las Vegas but we really enjoyed the pinball museum arcade. Lots of other places also - I'm always looking for different types of things. The Atomic Museum and the Mob Museum also rank at the top of my list.

Remember when you taught us how to use 1/2 price tix to see Mama Mia in Vegas. The last time we were there we learned how and got the half price tix for Jersey Boys. Sooo fun and since I don't walk that well anymore, we did most of MY gambling in Paris where the show was. Good times.